Leading Thinkers in India, Pakistan Are Trying to Build a Bridge to Peace

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Without expecting overnight transformation, over 500 eminent signatories from both countries are hoping to create a ripple effect that changes how citizens and governments view each other.

The resolution contains a pledge to “act responsibly and stop broadcasting hate speech and creating public hysteria aimed at the other country and/or vulnerable communities.” Credit: Joshua Song/Flickr CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

A recent citizens’ resolution urging South Asian giants India and Pakistan “to take all steps possible towards improving relations” aims to counter the prevailing atmosphere of hostility between the two nuclear-armed neighbours.

Is it possible that the endorsements from significant, leading thinkers will create a ripple effect of a “pebble thrown in a pond”, as one political leader said? The fact that he did not publicly endorse the statement while supporting it privately speaks to the reluctance of mainstream politicians to take positions perceived as unpopular in the public realm. Going against the tide created by political rhetoric and media hype requires courage, given the risk of being pilloried as a ‘traitor’.

However, the 900 endorsements garnered in days by a loose coalition of activists and journalists – peacemongers – after the resolution was circulated privately shows that many are willing to take that risk. They include those who are not the ‘usual suspects’ – top ranking retired military personnel, parliamentarians and diplomats. In fact, the endorsements read like a who’s who of intellectuals, artists, journalists, filmmakers, lawyers, historians, physicians, businesspeople, economists and students in the region and beyond.

The resolution does not mention specifics. However, it comes on the heels of a series of events over the past months that mark a new low in relations between the neighbours. These include a Pakistani military court sentencing to death captured Indian national Kulbhushan Jadhav soon after a retired Pakistan army colonel went missing in Nepal (who Pakistan believes is in Indian custody).

Such developments illustrate the resolution’s comment that every time there is a move towards improving relations, “some form of disruption takes place ranging from jingoistic statements to militant attacks. The traditional response to such disruptions only strengthens those who want continued tensions between our two countries”.

“In the 70 years since independence and Partition, the people of India and Pakistan have seen too many conflicts and the loss of many valuable lives. Enough of the distrust and tensions. Those who suffer particularly are ordinary people denied visas and those in the conflict zones, especially women and children as well as fishermen who get routinely rounded up and arrested for violating the maritime boundary,” says the statement.

Titled ‘Resolution for peaceful relations between India and Pakistan’, the statement’s subtitle, “Make dialogue uninterrupted and uninterruptible”, uses a phrase popularised by the veteran Indian politician Mani Shankar Aiyar, who is among the signatories.

The over a dozen retired senior armed forces personnel from either side among the signatories include founding members of the India Pakistan Soldiers’ Initiative for Peace (IPSI) launched by the late Nirmala “Didi” Deshpande as well as IPSI’s current presidents in India and Pakistan, General Tej Kaul and General Humayun Bangash respectively.

The endorsement of Mohini Giri, chairperson, War Widows Association, India, speaks for the pain of soldiers’ families who face the brunt of unnecessary hostilities. Signatories include the college student Gurmehar Kaur who was two years old when her father, an Indian army captain, was killed in the aftermath of the Kargil “war-like situation”. Hypernationalists attacked Kaur for her courageous, thought-provoking assertion that it was “war and not Pakistan” that killed her father.

Pakistan’s long-time denial of involvement in Kargil ended with General Pervez Musharraf’s 2006 memoir In the Line of Fire, in which he revealed that Pakistani battalions had participated in the transgression. Islamabad has since honoured many army regulars who fought in Kargil.

“We need to speak the truth, no matter how uncomfortable,” says Pakistan army Lieutenant General (retired) Mahmud Durrani, who has been lobbying for better relations between the two countries since 1999. Durrani has come under fire in Pakistan for publicly conceding that Mumbai attacker Ajmal Kasab was Pakistani.

Many young activists have endorsed the resolution, especially on the Indian side. Praveen Singh has since 2013 led an annual cycle rally for India-Pakistan friendship across India; Devang Shah has organised college debates featuring visiting Pakistani students; Chintan Girish Modi runs an online platform, Friendships Across Borders: Aao Dosti Karein. Members of the cross-border youth group Aaghaz-e-Dosti (Start of Friendship) and the Red Elephant Foundation are also signatories, as is young writer Anam Zakaria, author of Footprints of Partition.

The resolution contains a pledge to “act responsibly and stop broadcasting hate speech and creating public hysteria aimed at the other country and/or vulnerable communities.” Signatories include dozens of top journalists, some of them household names, like Rajdeep Sardesai and Hamid Mir.

Calling to implement the 2003 ceasefire agreement and recognising that “the Kashmir dispute above all concerns the lives and aspirations of the Kashmiri people”, the statement urges policy makers to “work to resolve it through uninterrupted dialogue between all parties concerned”. There really is no way forward except for dialogue, as the senior Indian journalist Prem Shankar Jha, also a signatory to the statement, stressed while talking to Geo TV recently.

Both countries must, as the resolution suggests, “develop an institutionalised framework to ensure that continuous and uninterrupted talks between India and Pakistan take place regularly no matter what” and renounce “all forms of proxy wars, state-sponsored terrorism, human rights violations, cross-border terrorism and subversive activities against each other, including through non-state actors or support of separatist movements in each other’s state”.

The statement condemns “all forms of violence regardless of its objectives”. Highlighting the importance of people-to-people contact it urges Pakistan and India to “remove visa restrictions and discrimination faced by citizens of both countries”. They should in fact, go further, “to allow visa-free travel between India and Pakistan”.

Pakistan and India, the region’s most populous and largest economies, should “increase trade and economic linkages and cultural exchanges” says the statement. The current bilateral trade, less than $2 billion a year, belies their enormous trade potential of about $20 billion and makes South Asia one of the world’s least-integrated regions.

Endorsements by prominent signatories from countries like Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bangladesh and Afghanistan underscore the impact of Indo-Pak relations on the region. The signatories’ list is being updated daily online by volunteers at various websites including Aman ki Asha.

Signatories have no illusions that they will change policy overnight. Creating ripples in the pond is merely a step aimed at contributing to the eventual goal of attaining peaceful relations between India and Pakistan. Bridging this chasm is critical for sake of future generations in the region and beyond.

Beena Sarwar is the editor of Aman ki Asha (Hope for Peace).

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Why? What are the advantages to either side by having a discussion? I cannot think of successful Islamic democracies other than Iran, Malaysia and Indonesia. Can anyone ? Pakistan in fact is fighting with itself whether to stay a democracy or a failed state like Syria. I am afraid they wanted to create Syria in our neighborhood and i hope their civil society wake up and fight against the radical Islam and try to course correct their religion. For radical Islamic countries, only dictatorship will work and nothing else. Pakistan has to find its soul by asking a simple question how many Muslims are getting killed on a daily basis in their own country by promoting radicalism? Any logic in this radical idea to begin with? They cannot handle their own economic affairs and why to risk to even think about Kashmir? If there is a war, i am afraid they will have a deeper economical crisis and they could think China will help them. On the contrary, China is just thinking of its own investments and they don’t care what happens if war breaks out. Pakistani civil society has to arise above religion and think about good governance and exclude religion out of governance. On the other hand, India wants to be a powerful nation under the leadership of Modi ji and we are marching towards that goal and there are no similarities between these two nations. If Pakistan sobers down by concentrating their own issues, both countries could spend less in Military and people will get the fruits of development.

Rohini

They want to change perception? But, it’s not perception but fact that – Pakistan was and is involved int he export of terror. How to change these facts? By pretending Mumbai didn’t happen or that Uri and Pathankot didn’t happen etc? By pretending that Pakistan is today not considered the epicentre of the export of terrorism? BY forgetting that Osama bin laden was there, a few meters away from an army encampment? Then, we are going to need an amnesia pill or a mass attack of Parkinson’s in India.

I feel that we need justice and such attacks must stop. That does not translate into enmity with Pakistanis and neither is it a call for war. War will be disastrous to both countries and is simply not a solution to anything. See where the ‘war on terror’ by the US has brought them – nowhere, really.
Do not conflate the need for govt action to secure the country against terror with personal animosity with ordinary Pakistanis. Some are great, some are ok, some are rubbish..just like other people in the world.
I expect that the Indian govt will deal with these issues with a steel hand and stop further such attacks. That is part of my contract with the state – security from terror attacks.

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